The IFF starts today! As usual, the festival is happening at the Somervile, Brattle, and Coolidge Corner theatres.

Check out the complete film list. Sadly, Ravelry ate my life and I didn't have time to put together a little site like I did last year, so you'll have to Google and IMDB and YouTube on your own...

Sometimes the description is all you need to make your decision. For example: "Blood Car: When the price of gasoline becomes too steep, mild-mannered vegan Archie Andrews discovers a gory replacement for petrol." ...or maybe "Song Sung Blue Captures the unexpected victories and tragedies beset upon Milwaukee's favorite Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline tribute band, 'Lightning and Thunder'."

Today gets the prize for the this year's most enjoyable Vespa ride home from work (so far). On my way home from work, I scoot along Memorial Drive from Harvard Square to Charlestown. It's probably not the most direct route but it's a lot of fun - people are out sunning and jogging, the river is filled with sailboats, and with a good tailwind I can get up to 40 MPH (don't laugh!) ..and it's just pretty.

(Man, I *really* couldn't find a nice picture on Flickr! I did find my favorite corner - zooom! I wish my scooter went faster)

I hope that August never comes.

First - the Boston Independent Film Festival is coming soon! This is an awesome event - anyone out there who is in the area should make sure to try a few films. Every year I put a lot of time into looking up everything that is on the schedule and trying to persuade my friends to go. This time around I put a little site together as a public service. It's got the summaries, posters, trailers, ratings, and more - check it out at iff2007.com.

Next, it's been a while since I posted some MP3s. Boston boys Smoke or Fire came out with a new album on Fat Wreck Chords - here's a track called Melatonin.

It's restaurant week in Boston! This week many of the city's fine restaurants will be serving reasonably priced prix fixe lunches and dinners. There are soo many good places to choose from. At the moment, I'm thinking about Pierrot (mm.. real french bread), Taranta (mmm.. Peruvian/Italian fusion) and Oleana (yeah right, they've *got* to be booked up by mow).

Tired of big-budget "indies"? The 7th Annual Boston Underground Film Fest at the Somerville Theatre starts today and continues through the weekend. There should be something for everyone at the festival: feature length, animation, shorts, documentary, screenings of works-in-progress, and of course, zombies.

The lineup looks great. Check out the PDF Schedule and Guide. Most of the films will only be shown once, so read the guide and make sure to get over there and see the ones that interest you.

The story of Victoria Snelgrove is heartbreaking. I don't know if stupid people will ever stop breaking shit and lighting things on fire when their favorite team is doing well. I wish they would. Obviously, the police need to look into their methods and think about "non-lethal" weapons. Here's hoping that the riot cops are all there to protect people first and property second.

A friend of mine is moving to Boston next month and he asked me if I could give him information about cool places to live or tips on relocating to the area. Since I live in Cambridge, this is the best that I could come up with... *Please* send along any comments that you might have. I'd really like to help him out.

First of all, you'll need to figure out what you can afford. I think that the best Boston area apartment hunting site is bostonapartments.com (http://www.bostonapartments.com). Before you have decided on where you want to live you can use this site to get an idea of what it costs to live in different neighborhoods. Bostonapartments usually has a great list of "No Fee" apartments - stick with these if possible. If you end up choosing a place that is listed with a realtor then they will extort one month's rent from you.

In addition to all of the neighborhoods/boroughs in Boston you should also look at Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline. All three are nice places to live and are convenient to the T. Keep in mind that being close to the T doesn't mean that it will be easy to get downtown. Watch out for the fucking green line - looks can be deceiving. The green has smaller trains which run above ground and get stuck in traffic. There are a ton of stops and a half dozen branches which means that you'll always find yourself waiting for the right train or switching back and forth. I'd say that being close to the red line would be ideal. I really like living in Harvard Square. Davis Square in Somerville is also a cool place and probably much cheaper than living downtown. If money is no object then you can probably find a sweet place on Beacon Hill. Sorry I don't have more advice on this - I've never lived in Boston proper. As you are looking, let me know about which areas you are thinking about. Most of the people that I know are in Somerville and Cambridge but I may be able to tell you something...

You'll definitely save a lot of money if you find a roommate or two. Craig's List Boston (http://boston.craigslist.org/roo/) is probably the best place to find an apartment that comes with people already in it.

Does anyone have any other advice?

One more hour of work and I'm outta here. I'm leaving a little early because Jess and I are going to see the Suicide Girls Burlesque show (link probably not work-safe) at the Middle East tonight.

Woohoo! *mischievous grin*

It's 8:00 on Sunday night. Jess and I managed to get out of the apartment this afternoon and have brunch at Matt Murphy's Pub. Yum. If you are anywhere near Brookline Village, you should head over to Murphy's to get a Guinness and some grub. After lunch, we picked up some groceries at Trader Joe's and headed for home. I've been sitting here ever since. I don't feel like I have to make the best of my Sunday because tomorrow is a holiday :) 3 day weekends are the best.

I also had a chance to flip through the latest Improper Bostonian. The magazine has a pretty good section which lists upcoming events (concerts, author appearances, performing arts, and so on). I try to pay attention to what is going on in and around the city but I'm always missing something cool. It would be nice if there was a good online resource for Boston folk. Craig's List doesn't have much. Upcoming.org looks pretty cool but the listings are sparse. The same goes for Exploit Boston!

It seems like flyers on telephone poles and construction site fences are still the one of the best ways to spread (and receive) the word.

Time to get up offa my thing and forage for dinner. Seeya.